James Patterson donating another $1.75 million to libraries

NEW YORK — James Patterson is ready to launch another season of giving.

The author and literary philanthropist told The Associated Press on Tuesday that for a second year he’s donating $1.75 million to the country’s school libraries.

Patterson’s School Library Campaign, in partnership with Scholastic Reading Club, gave hundreds of schools grants in 2015, ranging from $1,000 to $10,000.

Applications for this year can be found on www.scholastic.com/pattersonpartnership .

They must be submitted by May 31. Requests can be for anything from fixing computers to a school book program.

Patterson, who received an honorary National Book Award last year for his contributions to the literary community, has also given away millions to independent bookstores and to literacy programs. He emphasized in a statement “the vital role reading plays in children’s lives.” TVJ

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Want a good night’s sleep? Keep a diary

Many seniors fret over their difficulty in falling asleep at night. The older we get, the less time we seem to be able to sleep — the average is just six hours for 65-year-olds. When we try harder to sleep, our sleep tends to become lighter and we wake up more frequently.

Last year, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry in Japan revised its “sleep guidelines,” which are designed to help people get the sleep they need for a healthy lifestyle. It was the first revision made since 2003. Packed with scientific insight on sleep, the guidelines include different words of warning for every age group.

Until the early teens, most people can get over eight hours of sleep each night. This gradually drops once we hit 20, and by the time we’re 65 we end up sleeping around six hours a night. We require less sleep for a variety of reasons, such as reduced basal metabolism — the energy we need to keep alive — and the amount of exercise we get.

On the other hand, the time spent in bed starts going up after we turn 45, climbing past 7½ hours a night by the time we turn 75.

“Unnecessarily lengthening your time in bed only makes you sleep lighter,” the guidelines say.

They also warn: “It becomes easier to wake up in the middle of the night, and harder to feel like you got a good night’s sleep. It’s important to regulate the times you go to bed and wake up, and you should design an appropriate sleep schedule for yourself.”

So how does one go about making sure they have a good night’s sleep?

Kazuo Mishima, a doctor at the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry in Tokyo, recommends keeping a “sleep diary.” Recording the times you go to bed, turning off the lights after reading a book, when you get out of bed, and how long you could not sleep will help you understand exactly how much sleep you’re getting, he said.

As for the time it takes from turning off the lights to falling asleep, feel free to give a ballpark figure. The same goes for the time between waking up once at night and falling back to sleep. Keeping a diary every day for a week will reveal your average hours of sleep in proportion to hours spent in bed.

“Those for whom the proportion is less than 85 percent should try delaying their bedtime or getting out of bed when they can’t sleep, to narrow the difference,” Mishima said. For example, if you usually sleep six hours, and the time you go to sleep and waking up at night is 30 minutes to one hour, you should go to bed at 11 p.m. and wake up at 6 a.m.

Those suffering from insomnia should visit a clinic and get advice from a sleep specialist.

Avoid nightcaps since they make your sleep lighter, and try not to fall into the “nap trap” — one hour of daytime napping is said to equal two or three hours of nighttime sleep.

“If you have to give in to drowsiness,” Mishima said, “try to nap between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. which has little impact on your nighttime sleep.”

“Set an alarm to ensure you don’t sleep longer than half an hour. That way, you won’t enter a deep sleep,” he said.

Hideki Tanaka, a professor of psychology at Hiroshima Kokusai Gakuin University, recommends light exercise in the early evening. “Take a walk, stretch and try abdominal breathing around 5 o’clock in the evening,” Tanaka said.

Taking a catnap in the evening means it will be more difficult to fall asleep at night, so exercise is a great way to stay awake. Keep it light, though, since intense exercise will only make you sleepy immediately afterward.

For abdominal breathing, place both hands on your belly, drawing breaths slowly through your nose as you expand your abdomen. Pucker your lips and slowly exhale, deflating your abdomen. Repeat three times.

“You can even do abdominal breathing right before going to sleep,” Tanaka said. “It helps relieve the stress that keeps you awake at night.”

Points for better sleep

— Seniors sleep an average of six hours a night. When you try to sleep longer, your sleep becomes lighter and you won’t feel like you got a good night’s rest

— Keep a sleep diary, and try to limit “time spent in bed” compared to “time slept”

— Limit naps to 30 minutes, and aim for between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

— Fight off drowsiness in the early evening with light exercise and abdominal breathing

source: technology.inquirer.net

A book called ‘Tim’

There’s been a book sitting on my night table for the last two years. I’ve been meaning to give it a good read, but other things always seemed to get in the way. Before I knew it, the book had found itself beneath a stack  I’m still working my way through.

Will I ever get around to reading it?

It isn’t like I don’t know the story; if anything, I know the story pretty well. I know every thought behind every word written. I know the characters a little more intimately than I should. I know how it starts and I know where it ends. But even then, I still haven’t read the book.

I mean, why should I? I wrote it.

Like most of my favorite pieces of art, I wrote my book because of a girl. In fact, I started writing it the moment she told me  that I should write one. Looking back now, I’m pretty sure the reason she suggested I write a book was so I’d be distracted enough to leave her alone!

But it didn’t matter. Something was lit inside me and I was hell-bent on dashing off a classic.

It was going to be my “High Fidelity.” It was going to be my answer to Liz Phair’s “Exile in Guyville.” It was going to be my “Clerks.”

I was Lloyd Dobler, and this book was going to  be the boombox over my head, serenading the girl on the other side of the window.

As far as plot goes, I did nothing new: a directionless 19-year-old hooks up with a girl who’s as big a nerd and outcast as he is, and somewhere along the way, he starts to grow up and take charge of his life.

Romantic comedy

It’s the classic ’80s romantic comedy set in Manila, and the only thing setting my story apart from “Say Anything” or “Some Kind of Wonderful” was that this was going to be my story.

I loaded it up with a soundtrack of 14 of my favorite songs and little references in the pages that alluded to a time in alternative rock I wished I was old enough to have lived through. The title character was to be named after a Replacements record, “Tim.” And yes, I did imagine him being portrayed by a young John Cusack.

I used Facebook and DeviantArt to announce my scheme to the world, and almost instantly I was bombarded with well-wishes that were criminally negligent, now that I think about it.

Yeah, writing a novel is a big, exciting thing that hardly anyone seems to have the nerve for, but what people fail to see is that writing a story of that length and proportion is a really maddening thing.

For the better part of one year, I chipped my way through “Tim,” completely driving myself to the point of insanity. The art of writing is by nature solitary; I can’t even count the number of nights I stayed up until 7 in the morning, hopped up on coffee, just chipping away at this epic piece of writing I was sure would change the world.

I was lucky I had a strong support system of friends, who cheered me through the finish line, and by the time I got there, I was completely exhausted.

I can’t even begin to describe how exhausted I was by the time I finished “Tim.” With all the support I had, I (foolishly) believed that the world was ready to take a look at my manuscript and that, in a matter of months, I’d be able to walk into Fully Booked and buy my book.

But no, that didn’t happen. When it was all said and done, hardly anyone wanted to read “Tim.” It was incredibly disheartening. I didn’t even want to prove anything to the girl I wrote it for anymore—I just wanted someone to tell me if I did  a good enough job.

It would really grind my gears whenever someone came up to me, asking me to judge their stupid photo or whatnot, but paid hardly any mind when it came to my work. As if writing isn’t respected enough as an art.

I’m sorry to say this, but any idiot with the right tools can take a good picture, but it takes a completely different kind of beast to string words together into a cohesive sentence  and create a story, let alone a book.


Swimming along

As much as it sucked, I had to remember that the world kept on moving, and I was better off swimming along. After working on  “Tim,” letting go was the sanest thing I could give myself.

Life went on. I kept busy by playing in a couple of short-lived bands, and with my new love for fanzines, I self-published two of my short stories.

And to my surprise, a couple of friends took the time to read “Tim.” My buddy Claire told me you could actually make a drinking game from all the kissing in the book. Awesome! While JD Salinger inspired a generation  of teenagers  to call each other “phony,” I’d be inspiring a new generation of teenagers to fall in love and make out.

Another friend told me that this was the kind of story that should have been made into a movie years ago.

I’ll be honest, it was nice to hear all this about something I spent a year working on. At the very least, this was all I could ask for, really.

I decided to take “Tim” and give it a proper read; close by was a red marker, ready for any corrections and changes that must be made.

I’m reading it now, but there’s something a little bit different as I go through it this time.

I can’t quite place my finger on it—but it kinda sucks.

From a narrative standpoint, my writing now is a lot stronger (and more respectable), and I’ll be damned, there is a lot of kissing in this book—scratch that, there’s too much kissing!

What the hell was I thinking?! These characters don’t need a book—they need a motel room!

Regardless of the parts which do remain strong, the whole thing needs a complete rewrite, and as I let things sink in, I’m starting to wonder if this was what I should have done from the moment I finished the story.

I’m glad only a handful of people bothered to read it. Imagine if I picked this up at  Fully Booked right now. I’d be standing there, holding my book with an unshakeable cringe! Not only would I want to burn my own hard work, I’d feel compelled to run off to a different city under a new name.

So I’m letting things sink in, and over a warm cup of coffee and a good smoke, I thought about “Tim,” the reason I wrote it,  and the time I spent writing it.

I was 21; hardly any of my favorite writers made anything worth reading at that age.

At 21, I was naive and completely taken by the sight of the world and everything it had to offer me. I was drunk on love and I would have gladly taken the chance to prove myself to any worthy girl that came my way.

Maybe in the end, that’s what “Tim” is supposed to be: a reflection of myself at 21. And given how jaded I’ve become, there’s a lot for me to learn in his story.

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net